Zorah Vas Tardis
by Blitzwave
Summary: A simple mission to Noveria soon becomes so much more for Tali'Zorah Vas Neema. But can she survive to see the return of Shepard? Or is she doomed to see the web of time fall under her own actions?


Zorah Vas Tardis

Chapter 1: Panic at The Port, Part One.

2184.

One year after the attack on the Citadel by the Geth.

One year after the destruction of the SSV Normandy, most of its crew and the hero Commander Shepard.

While the galaxy owes a debt of gratitude to Shepard and those who helped her stop the Geth threat, there are those who know the truth of the matter. The real culprits for the attack on the Citadel and deaths of the previous council members.

One such individual currently resides on the star ship known as the Neema. That individual is a Quarian whom is surrounded by her people. A fact that she thought would be so comforting. Yet the loss of Commander Shepard still weighs heavily upon her. While the rest of the crew try to understand her loss, they do not. For they never truly will.

With the absence of Shepard, the Eden Prime war continued longer than necessary. Although most Geth forces in Citadel space were destroyed in the Battle of the Citadel, holdouts had yet remained. The Alliance Navy swept up most of these holdouts and has now declared an end to the conflict, despite the civilians who want 'justice' for Shepard.

Tali'Zorah Vas Neema knows that the Geth couldn't have destroyed the Normandy. No lone Geth ship could. Could they?

They had been gone for thousands of years. Thousands of advancements could have been made to the ship that attacked Shepard. But no. They couldn't.

Shepard was a hero.

Heroes don't die to random attacks by unknown cruisers.

Do they?

As the Neema docked with a Noveria docking port, Tali'Zorah steeled herself for the all too familiar cold. She decided to keep the rest of the crew apart from herself and Kal'Reegar on ship. Knowing that the others would inevitably complain about the cold. That and Kal had been assigned this mission with her. Of course, having another hand with a gun there to make sure no Geth remnants popped out to attack would have been great if they had been allowed to keep their guns. Unfortunately, Noveria had to make them keep those on the ship. Missing spectre privileges may not have weighed too heavily on Tali's mind, but in these situations, it annoyed her to no end to not have those privileges anymore.

Once past security, her and Kal used the elevators to get to the upper levels. The ride was eerily silent. So much so that Tali was reminded of Garrus's arguments and Liara's interests in archaeology. The constant warriors berating of Wrex, the anti-alien talk of Ashley Williams and Kaiden… Oh Kaiden.

She hadn't known him long, she barely talked to him on the Normandy, yet he had been willing to give his life for the galaxy.

A feat she didn't know she could reach.

Once arriving at the top both were treated with stares and looks of near disgust. Of course, these looks were slightly mitigated by Tali's reputation as one of the only Quarians who had helped saved the galaxy. Unfortunately for Kal he was not.

Then she saw something out of the ordinary. A human wearing a black jacket covered in what looked like advertisements of all different things. Her clothing was so… light. Especially for the cold conditions of Noveria. The thing that interested Tali the most was the charge shining out of her bag and the human male that looked like he was almost… Telling her off for having it? The finger wagging looked that way anyway. Somewhat like a teacher would do to an unruly student. The man was short with an umbrella between his other hand, bulgy eyebrows, and an almost cartoonish grin. Those blue eyes seemingly holding in more pain than she'd ever seen from Shepard.

For a moment, Tali considered talking to them. As if there was something far more to the two. Before long Tali had to go around a corner to the business associate her and Kal had been sent here for, but not before noticing the man pointing towards her with the young human girl looking quite surprised at whatever the human male was saying.

Once upon the office they needed to be at, Tali took the lead. Making it clear to the receptionist that she was the one leading instead of Kal. Much to the almost transparent annoyance of Kal.

"Sir, if you and your friend are with the two that just came in then please do leave."

"Me and MY friend are on the appointment list. Tali'Zorah. With a T."

"I um! S-Sorry! I didn't-" She blurted out in surprise. Clearly not recognising Tali in the first place. After that the receptionist begrudgingly let them through, Tali thought she heard something in the distance. Turning to face the faint whirring sound before turning back to Kal as that sound had been coming from behind a wall. A wall with little to no interesting parts to it at all.

"Couldn't the both of you be more discreet? I heard the arguing and I'm not-"

"We just arrived! We haven't argued with your receptionist at all."

"Calm down!" Kal stated. Waiting a moment for Tali to calm herself down. In response, Tali let out what could only be described as a 'huff' of sorts. Especially due to how limiting Kal had been for the past few days. Their conversations on the Neema were barely that of any consequence. Not important and not at all letting her say all she wanted to say. Military ranks were still as hard to get used to as it had been before she'd gone on her pilgrimage.

"At least you people keep your subordinates in line. Now, about what the flotilla wants? I'll need substantial amounts of convincing upfront."

Tali was ready to knock this guy's block off. If she'd kept her gun, she'd have it pointing at his head. Greed driven people were far worse than anyone else in the galaxy. Especially since the Flotilla had to deal with them nearly every day.

If anything, the only reason they still let greedy Volus barter with them was because everyone else were too busy holding out for their own.

Sure, the Alliance Navy had been more generous after the Citadel attack. But after Shepard was gone their generosity seemed to dry up into nothing.

"She is exercising restraint. A fact you shouldn't take lightly. Now, how much is this... 'substantial amount'?"

"Now we're talking business! It's got to be big or the deals off. Now we both know that I'm asking how much the flotilla has, maybe a little more if it seems to be the way this goes…"

"I'm not here to bargain, barter or switch up any sort of deals. We're here specifically for it and it alone."

"It's is very valuable to the Flotilla isn't it? You'd send a smaller crew than the one you have and would have left the Quarian hero at home if the flotilla didn't care that much. But since you did, it's got to be valuable. Something valuable you'll do a lot more for correct?"

She knew punching the Volus was the wrong way for this to go. Of course, it was. But it would feel a hell of a lot better than letting this fool barter with the Flotilla's well-being like this.

Kal was equally fed up with this buffoon. Kal was sure he had already heard the terms when the council had contacted him, yet he still was reaching for more. It was detestable.

"Your silence speaks volumes mister … Reegar is it? Well. How about we start with… 25 credits."

"25 credits?"

"Oh. Sorry, I miss out words every now and then. Silly Volus habit of mine. 25 billion credits."

"You Bo-"

"I thought you were going to be quiet." She couldn't take how easily this person was tossing around the Flotilla's well-being! 25 billion credits for some device? It was ridiculous. Utterly and simply ridiculous. Much like the clothes of the man when he walked in.

Tali didn't have any understanding of Edwardian clothing at the time, so she saw it as rather light for being on Noveria. Was every other human trying to freeze to death?

But what hit her the most wasn't those clothes, no matter how ridiculous they looked, it was the face. His long angular face with the jutting chin and aristocratic nose were softened by the mass of dark brown hair that swept back down all the way from his high forehead to his broad shoulders. Though the man was only slightly taller than Kal, Tali could tell he was towering over everyone there. Yet when she looked towards those familiar blue eyes, his mid-thirties age appearance clashed with how old those eyes looked. Like Shepard, Tali saw pain and loss in those eyes. Perhaps even more from this man compared to Shepard. Which was of course possible, but Tali couldn't have ever estimated the amount of pain this man felt.

"Your receptionist wasn't very nice. I'd suggest better interviewers, but that'd actually cost something instead of being a thing you can just assign other people to do for you."

"Get out. Now."

"Actually. I don't think I will, in fact I'll…"

"You'll what?"

"Shh, shh! Thinking. You two… no. Neither of you should be here." After such a statement, both Kal and Tali were confused. With Kal making an annoyed sigh which all heard through his environmental suit helmet.

"Whatever you want, you can have your talks with this Volus later. So please, just leave us to our dealings." The man seemed to take some offense at this. Of course, the Volus took offense too. He had a name. A company name and probably something he wished he called himself.

"Kal'Reegar. Tali'Zorah vas… Neema is it? Yes. Neema. Still 2184. Now, why are either of you here? The Flotilla's well-being isn't exactly being threatened by anything here."

By now both Tali and Kal were further confused by this man. Both not wanting to say more, even if Tali knew little about what was going on with this mission.

"The Volus told you to leave, so leave before someone makes you."

"Woah there, let's not get violent. All I wanted was to speak to Director Van Statten about his business practices, but now both of you are here I can see that this is much bigger than I thought."

With the rage of a bull but the effectiveness of a mouse, the Volus stood and slammed his fists down on the desk he'd been sitting behind.

"Either you get out now. Or I call security. Your choice."

"Oh, can't you see? These two are clearly in the wrong place, what's such a conservative businessman doing with Quarians in his office? What would be the point in even addressing their call? As if you'd hand out anything for the Flotilla out of the goodness of your heart. So why exactly are you helping them?"

"I have no reason to answer anything you ask me!" The Volus then pressed a small button underneath his desk. "Karen. Get security to my office now. Get rid of this human."

"Much more than money I'd wager. Much more. Someone made you a deal you couldn't refuse, didn't they? Bleed the Flotilla dry of credits and then…" As the man contemplated the answer to his own questions, the security guards came in and began to drag him out. The man not fighting back in any way. Only bellowing down the corridor at the Quarians in particular. "DON'T TRUST HIM! YOU'RE TOO IMPORTANT TO-" But before the man could continue, the doors shut, and the sound ceased.

While Kal dismissed the entire debacle, Tali wanted to know what was going on. The only way to do that would be to follow this man who'd been dragged away.

"Kal'Reegar?" Tali asked, trying to seem as if she was being as casual as ever. Kal'Reegar, immediately seeing through this ruse, rolled his eyes. Nodding at her request before she 'pretended' more. Tali nodded back in thanks before leaving the room. Letting Kal'Reegar stay with Mr Van Statten.

* * *

Once outside those cramp offices, Tali had to make her way through businessmen and women who were all too busy with their own lives to walk out of the way. At some points she thought that they were intentionally ignoring her existence, just to make themselves feel better.

Suddenly, out of the corner of her visor, she saw a blue door open. She quickly turned around to look before seeing the man who had been dragged out from those offices. Why he was going into a massive blue box with the words 'Police' and other various Earth names for things on it, she didn't know. But it didn't at all matter now. As if her feet knew exactly where she wanted to go, they guided her towards the massive blue box. Soon finding herself standing in front of the nearly closed blue door.

Apprehension.

That one feeling hitting her like a Reaper would if it crashed into her. Then, sudden breathlessness as she entered.

Quickly she shut the door with enough force for it be heard by the man inside. Even if he was behind a...

She didn't even know what to call it.

While one would have thought the innards of the blue box would be small, they were not. At all.

She'd seen Reapers, Rachni, Ancient plant life capable of controlling people, Ilos and the Citadel on fire. Yet this… this was still something she'd never have expected.

One of the first things she noticed as her eyes danced around the room was how massive it was. Not only in its width but the height too. It was taller than any ship room she'd ever been in, and wider than any compartment she'd seen. Yet it was almost all made of a material no ship could ever use properly.

Wood.

Wooden floor panelling, wooden walls, wooden ceilings, and wooden doors. The various kinds of wood she couldn't name, but it was all so jarring to see this much wood on a planet where everything had been turned sleek and metallic where it wasn't frozen.

The room was filled with items she'd heard about from the Normandy crew and humans she'd spoken to before.

Wooden tables, wooden chairs, and a wooden statue to the left of the middle of the room. Rugs of multi-coloured patterns near or under those wooden tables. Candles and candlesticks all lit and with no signs of dying down. An old wooden clock connected to a different wooden pillar to the right of the middle of the room. Behind that right pillar were bookcase after bookcase. Lined with books of all kinds. Digital, hard copies and even plastic all there and waiting to be read.

Of course, the most striking part of the room was the middle. The middle part of the room had six arching, metal columns reaching far above the height of most sentient beings. These six columns placed symmetrically around a raised wooden platform.

The raised wooden platform was the exact same kind of wood the rest of the floor was, but within the middle of the platform was a hexagonal prism going up only a few metres before stopped by a slanted hexagonal console. The console itself was covered panel to panel with buttons and levers with blue, red, and silver contrasting the dark brown console itself. Within the middle of the hexagonal console was a circular column surrounded by what looked like glass. But just by looking she could tell that it wasn't at all as fragile as something like glass, inside were four dark blue columns that spiralled up to the top of the glass column casing around them.

It was nonsense and wisdom all trapped in one large room.

In the middle of it all stood that same man. A man who had just peeked his head around the column in the middle of the console and smiled at her. In return Tali uttered but one single word.

"How?"

With enthusiasm and sarcasm rolled into one expression he replied.

"How? Is that the greetings I get?" With a bellow he highlighted just how she ought to be greeting him. "HOW! That's good isn't it?" He asked as he walked down from the slightly raised platform and towards her as if they were good friends. "Learned that from Geronimo. Fascinating man. Now, questions, questions yes? Fire away."

After he'd accepted the fact that she was going to be answering questions, she took the initiative and made sure to ask the kind of questions anyone asks when finding themselves in a room far bigger than what the outer appearance would imply.

"How? How is it smaller on the outside? It makes no sense at all. Is it… are we smaller than we should be? But... I saw some of it from the outside so that can't be it. Does the... is it like a portal? The door? To another dimension? Another plane of reality? Is that it? Or… Or am I really just losing it?" Tali sighed in defeat after that last question. Trying to see if she was just hallucinating instead of seeing something this stupendous.

"It's dimensionally transcendental."

"And that means?"

"It's bigger on the inside." Well. That hadn't been any help. At all. Tali was nowhere closer to understanding what was going on before he'd started talking. "But you definitely aren't mad Tali'Zorah vas Neema." In an instant the man continued as if him saying that 'it was bigger on the inside' was supposed to make sense to Tali. He extended a hand out for what most humans would call a handshake, luckily Tali had seen such a thing coming and shook his hand as he introduced himself. "I'm the Doctor and this is the Tardis. Short for Time and Relative Dimensions in Space." Tali took the unabbreviated title to heart and pressed on with the questioning.

"So; it's a relative dimension separate from our... my own dimension, right?"

"I'll have to tell you later, for now we should really find Kal'Reegar. I think the both of you are in more danger than either of you realise." The tone the Doctor had now was far more serious once he'd started stating all of this. The tone almost reminding Tali of how serious Shepard could be during and before a mission.

But of course, not even this 'Doctor' could be like Shepard.

Instead of rushing off with him the moment their hands were removed from contact, Tali instead asked another important question that had been bubbling around in her mind ever since the Doctor had burst into those offices and interrupted her life.

"How am I and Kal important?"

"Because you have a profound effect on this galaxy, Tali. An effect that shouldn't have got you here to Noveria." Tali had to ponder this information. Trying to see exactly what he truly meant with those words instead of the nonsense he seemed to spout. It was almost as if he was trying to keep something secret from her.

"And Kal?"

"I've already said too much." The Doctor replied. The remorse strikingly obvious in his voice as he made his way past the rigid form of Tali. A hand placed so carefully on the door handle of the Tardis before he opened it to the oblivious residents of Noveria. "Now, to find your colleague." Tali followed the Doctor out of the Tardis, making sure to close the door behind her. The Doctor only chuckled at this, locking the door after she'd shut it.

"At least now no one will stumble upon your… Tardis."

"People have a profound ability to ignore the strange and continue on, like how you've ignored my dress sense."

While Tali acknowledged that this was a fact of most people of the galaxy, she had to say why she'd not spoken up about his dress sense, just to assure herself of her own ability to not be a part of the herd of people who didn't notice the strange and unlikely.

"Other humans on this planet dress just as strangely as you, Doctor."

"I'm not-What?" The Doctor had stopped himself in mid-sentence only to turn in Tali's direction. His face now almost radiating confusion in the most childish way. "These other humans, what were they wearing?"

"Why does it matter Doctor?"

"Because if I'm right, then both you and Kal'Reegar are in far more danger than I first thought. Come on!" He stated before grabbing her hand and beginning to run back to the offices. While the Doctor's sense of danger seemed to be all over the place, he did seem to radiate more than confusion.

Familiarity.

That familiarity inside of her head telling her that the Doctor was to be trusted. She would have to convince Kal'Reegar of all this when they got to him. So Tali ran with him towards those offices with a renewed solidarity.

At least for the moment.

* * *

Kal'Reegar watched as Tali left him alone with Van Statten. Knowing full well how hard it was going to be convincing him to not bankrupt the entire flotilla. Especially without Tali by his side.

"Did she not want to keep restraining herself?" Statten asked in a mocking tone that made Kal'Reegar want to punch the ever-living daylights out of the Volus. But instead he showed restraint. "Now, to the matter at hand, or do you want to keep flying around this so-called issue of amounts? Because that was wearing my patience rather thin."

"I'd have to contact my superiors for that."

"Oh really? Then go ahead. I do hope your ship's not too far from here." Kal'Reegar let out a sigh as he exited the room. The doors automatically sliding shut behind him before he let his posture become more relaxed. Ignoring the various stares from the varied residents of Noveria as he made his way back to the elevators. His relaxed posture making it that much more comfortable when he stretched out his arms.

Once entering the elevator and rotating his body around so that he was facing the doors, he saw two people running towards him. One was a short man who seemed to be in his forties with an animated grin, the other was a young woman who had a black jacket covered in what looked to be advertisements. Kal'Reegar sighed once again before pressing the button to keep the elevator doors open. The short man thanking him once both he and the woman were in the elevator.

Then the doors closed and Kal'Reegar expected it to just be staring and awkward silence. When in fact, it was just some staring. Silence didn't rear its ugly head at all.

"Hello, I'm the Doctor." The short man explained, the young woman shaking her head for a moment before interjecting with her own greetings towards him.

"And I'm Ace. Nice to meet ya, Kal'Reegar."

"How do you know my name?" Kal'Reegar asked. The confusion and curiosity getting the better of him, no matter how much he conformed to Quarian military standard.

"Well I-"

"Your exploits within the Quarian military are known by many people. You should feel proud." While Kal'Reegar raised his eyebrows at this, neither of the other occupants could see how plainly more confusion seemed to be sprouting from his features. But as that confusion set in, he felt both the Doctor and Ace place their hands over his wrists. "I do apologize for this." Before he could respond or act against these two, everything around him seemed to go white. But white with streams of blue surrounding him, keeping him in a certain position for moments on end before that reality around him disappeared and he was left in a room. A room that he'd call larger than the elevator but not as large as the open spaces connecting the offices of Noveria to the elevators.

One common theme with the elevator however was how white everything was, the floor, ceiling and walls lined in white space. Yet the walls… those walls with massive round structures interspersed between the grey panelling. All of that in the room the same until his eyes stopped at what seemed to be a viewing screen. He could see it showing snow and a white background but not much more. Almost as if it was hindered by the environmental surroundings of the walls of the port.

The most interesting and perplexing part of all of this wasn't the fact that he had realized soon enough that there were doors behind and in front of him, it wasn't the fact that there was a brown hat stand near the doors that had been behind him before he'd turned to see and it certainly wasn't the multi-coloured scarf on that particular hat stand instead of anymore hats.

The interesting part was the console in the middle. If that was in fact what it was. From the bottom was a hexagonal prism going up only a few metres before being stopped by a slanted hexagonal console. The console itself was covered panel to panel with buttons and levers with blue, red, grey, and silver making it fit in spectacularly with its surroundings. Within the middle of the hexagonal console was a circular column surrounded by what looked like glass. But just by looking he could tell that it wasn't at all as fragile as something like glass, inside were four light red columns that spiralled up to the top of the glass column casing around them. This casing only going a metre or two above the slanted hexagonal prism.

"I'm sorry but we-" But before the Doctor could finish saying whatever it was he wanted to say, Kal'Reegar ran towards the doors, swerving past Ace who had tried to stop him in a frivolous attempt. After running through a corridor, he entered another room, thanking all he held dear that the doors closed behind him.

Within this new room was what seemed to be some sort of wardrobe. The clothes of which, he had no context to describe the assorted materials and sets of clothing they were made up from but could plainly see that most of these things were meant for humans. He would've liked to see what a few of these clothes would look like modified for Quarians but alas, he hadn't the time to see to the multicoloured coat being copied for Quarian tastes or sizes.

He made sure to move out of the way of the doors, if they tried to get him once again, he'd just stay hidden within the pile of clothes left out by whichever person was in control of the wardrobe.

Soon enough, knocking rattled the doors over and over. Kal'Reegar staying about as silent as he could while waiting for the two humans to come in. Knowing that goading whoever these two were would be a poor decision indeed.

"Kal! We're doing this to help you and the flotilla! The Professor and I don't want you hurt. We're both unarmed if that helps."

Maybe in his younger years, he'd have believed such a thing. But they'd kidnapped him. Plain and simple. No amounts of 'sorry' and 'please believe us' were going to get him to believe them. Once he heard the doors open, he made sure to conceal himself fully in the pile. Not exactly being invisible but at the very least not seen until it was too late for at least one of these humans.

"The repercussions of you staying here are far too risky for the universe. I implore you to come out Mister Reegar."

As he waited for one of the humans to get close enough for him to drag them down to the floor, one thought popped into his mind.

Rolling R's.

He'd heard of the term before, one of the Neema's crew had talked to him about the subject. Of course, Kal'Reegar had reprimanded him on not keeping focused throughout flying the Neema through a mass relay, either way the subject had come up into his mind once again. The Quarian in question, E'Lon Vas Achilles, had been talking about how in the Hamlet project being made by the Elcor that they couldn't roll R's as effectively as other bipedal species and that getting Salarians or Turians to do the roles would have been a better choice. The point however was that when E'Lon had rolled an R like humans do, that same rolling had come from this 'Doctor'. While the rolling was rather admirable, it did little to help any suspicion against him and his friend.

"Professor, we should have just talked to him instead of y'know, taking him by force."

"Unfortunately, Ace, I doubt that he would have listened to us. On the other hand, we still need to find Tali'Zorah, her temporal well-being depends on it."

Kal'Reegar didn't know what the 'Doctor' or 'Professor' meant by temporal wellbeing, yet he did understand how important Tali was even if the council didn't see it. Which was why he gripped onto Ace's leg and dragged her down. Standing up and holding both her wrists so that she couldn't hit him. Despite this, he had to concentrate as much as possible to keep her from punching him as she tried to shake him off. His feet being tread on more than once in her dramatic attempts.

"Get off! We weren't trying to hurt you!"

"Then why kidnap me? What do you mean by temporal wellbeing? Who do you work for? Is Van Statten trying to kidnap me? Where are we? How did we get here? How do you roll R's like that?"

Multitudes of questions blasted the Doctor while Ace squirmed and wriggled in as much anguish as she could muster. The Doctor tapping a finger to his chin before smiling and answering these questions.

"Because a terrible accident is about to happen to Noveria and neither you or Tali should be there for it. I don't work for anyone and certainly not Statten. Temporal well-being refers to the temporal status of anyone in the universe, though I was referring to the universe we're currently in. We are in the Tardis. Short for Time and Relative Dimensions in Space. We were able to get here using 52nd century wrist porters, unfortunately I had to turn off the Tardis shielding, or we would have been stuck outside. I believe the rolling of my R's is just one of the many benefits of this incarnation. Is there anything else?"

Kal'Reegar processed all of this for a moment. To be fair to this Doctor, he had answered everything he'd asked. Even if he hadn't been that good with the explaining. But, he wasn't going to let up just for this one thing. An honest kidnapper is still a kidnapper, no matter what they say. Unfortunately for Kal, the Doctor had other plans for the Quarian soldier.

"Contact." The Doctor uttered. That single word soon searing into Kal's brain as wave after wave of information swept over his mind. His mind battered over and over by waves of information that was so, so vast and strange and fantastic and utterly ridiculous all wrapped in one. Wisdom, knowledge, and stupidity all in the form of memories and understandings Kal'Reegar never could have gotten on his own.

Instantly his hands let go of Ace. Letting the young woman walk back closer to the Doctor. She watched as Kal held his helmet in one hand.

"What did… how... why did you do that Doctor? Telepathic contact leaves... migraines." Kal questioned with the migraine hurting as it does and no proper doctor to help him out.

"I apologize for any ill effects. However, I never would have convinced you of anything if I hadn't. So, Mister Reegar. Are you ready to help us find Tali and save Noveria?" The Doctor asked with a smile. Even if Kal had received an enormous amount of information in the 'contact', he wasn't caught up on the entire situation, he still didn't know what the Doctor truly was, and he had no idea how Statten was going to end up blowing a hole in Noveria the size of Belgium.

Unfortunately, one bit of information did manage to slip through. The temporal status of both Tali and himself. Suffice to say, he wasn't happy about any of it. But those unhappy thoughts could wait.

At least for the moment.

* * *

Before the Doctor ran through past the entrance, Tali yanked him to a stop. Suffice to say, the Doctor was perturbed. Luckily, he'd noticed exactly what she'd noticed before either had gone past the almost entirely glass doors.

Neither of the guards were there to try and stop them. Now anyone else would have walked straight past, not caring that the guards were on smoke break or something like that. Ace certainly would have at this point. Luckily enough for the Doctor, Tali wasn't on her pilgrimage thinking that she could meet the shadow broker.

So, the Doctor entered cautiously first. Both already noticing that the receptionist wasn't where she was supposed to be. All the possibilities Tali began to think up disappeared in an instant once they heard the scream.

However, this scream wasn't from the receptionist. Nor from any of the guards. Though most wouldn't find Batarian screams any different from normal screams, Tali could tell. Asteroid 57X was to thank for that.

The scream was from none other than the same person who had so vehemently wanted the Doctor to leave. As the Doctor and Tali came across the Volus's body, both looked onto the mess that had been left behind.

The glass door was half-caked in blood. The hole left through Van Statten's torso made it all too clear the situation they were in. Without a second thought to the consequences of them witnessing this or the rather angry looking receptionist behind the glass doors, both turned around from the situation and ran back. The Doctor providing vocal advice while making sure that Tali ran ahead of him.

"RUN, TALI!"

Another shot rang out before the two had escaped back to the entrance. Unfortunately, they ran into two rather angry looking men with almost matching shotguns who seemed to be replacing the batarian guards. Within a moment three guns were cocked and trained on the two. The Doctor quickly putting his hands up, while Tali reluctantly followed his actions. Both turning to face the receptionist.

Tali thought that perhaps if she could knock one of them down, she could grab a gun and see how well she remembers using one, however she knew that the Doctor might not survive that plan.

"These two saw what I've had to do. Kill them before anyone gets too suspicious."

Tali took a deep breath, readying herself for her plan. It may be bad, but it was the only one she had.

"Karen, what do you think this is going to achieve? Us being dead can't have been in the plan. If you shoot us now who knows how many people would hear us compared to Statten? Is that a risk you and your 'employers' are willing to take?" The Doctor asked with an air of knowing far more than he should. Almost as if…

No.

But that makes sense.

Then why… why wouldn't he say?

Of course, the Doctor knows who their employers are. It seemed as if the Doctor knew and yet didn't want to tell her. Did he know this was going to happen?

While these were all valid questions. They couldn't hold up against the ruthlessness of the three around them.

Before more thoughts or questions could be made concerning the Doctor or the mysterious 'employers', one of them decided to make it very, very clear the enemy they were facing.

Most terrorists aren't as revealing as she was.

"Cerberus sends it's regards, Doctor."

With that statement, three gunshots rang out from the offices of Binary Helix. Kal'Reegar, Ace and the Doctor running past civilian after civilian before finding themselves in a position to see the predicament. Only to find out exactly the kind of people they were facing.

* * *

Thank you for reading! I do hope that anyone who reads puts all comments down. In fact, if you'd like to insult me then go ahead. If anyone wants to leave constructive criticism behind that'd be nice too. So, readers, go forward in all your beliefs and proof to me that I am not mistaken in mind.


End file.
